Top 10 bad tech predictions

From a record label once rejecting the Beatles because “guitar music is on its way out” to cult leaders raving about the apocalypse every few years, history is full of unfulfilled predictions. Technology, prone as it is to so many unforeseen developments and challenges, is certainly no exception. Try as they might, even the most informed speculators find it hard to predict what engineers will accomplish — even within a decade.

Fortunately, their best attempts often wind up to be pretty good fodder for a laugh in retrospect. While some of the most well-cited quotes have been chalked up as mere urban legends (like Bill Gates predicting that no one would ever need more than 640K of memory), we flipped back through the pages of history to dig up some of the most profoundly misguided tech predictions the world has ever known, from people who really should have known better.